Flying trains could come your way

Looks like Q, the James Bond technician, would create: A plane landing on a runway, taking off its wings, turning into a train and rolling on rails to drop you at your local station

C & # A French entrepreneur who has made millions by linking engineers to industrial groups, launches Boeing Co and others. "Link & Fly" is Akka Technologies' new flagship design, with wings that speed up airport turnover and make boarding easier and closer to home.

"After electric and autonomous cars, the next big disruption," said Maurice Ricci, chief executive of Akka, during an interview in Paris. Boeing is among the leading customers in the industry. Akka, as it seeks to limit its dependence on Airbus SE and Renault SA in Europe.

With the futuristic concept of Akka, pbadengers would climb aboard. a subway in a neighborhood station, their retinas scanned for safety during the journey to the airport, the wings would then be attached to the pod for takeoff, and the company presented the idea in a 3D video, arousing the interest of potential customers in Asia, said Ricci, without naming any company.

Disruptive flights

Aircraft builders began to react to disruptive ideas – Uber investments in flying taxis to Kitty Hawk, a sta rt-up supported by Google's co-founder Larry Page who creates a plane to a battery-powered person. Airbus took the offensive with a new division to oversee the transportation of the future, while Boeing made a noisy foray into jetpacks.

While Akka does not intend to convince an aircraft manufacturer to necessarily build the entire "Link & Fly" concept, bet on the design to be an attention grabber and a showcase, some parts of which are likely to end up in the commercial aircraft of the customers all the way.

Akka, which has a value of 1.1 billion euros (1.3 billion dollars) and whose largest shareholder is Ricci, employs engineers that customers can hire on a project basis. as consultants. The company develops an autonomous car concept in 2008 and badociates with Dbadault Systèmes in 2014 to offer services to automakers

The title has grown by 23% this year, several times the increase of 1 , 8% of the CAC 40 benchmark and a

US market

Similar to the Airbus A320 in terms of size and use of the target, the Akka Link & Trolley Fly for short-haul flights carries 162 pbadengers and seats can be removed to move freight instead. With clipped wings and engines fixed on top, the design has a wingspan of about 49 meters, 34 meters long and 8 meters high.

Akka achieves 75% of its sales in France and Germany and becomes more dependent on automotive manufacturing with the takeover of a Daimler engineering unit in 2010. The Paris-based company hopes its new concept will appeal to new aerospace customers in the United States. The purchase of Texan engineering company PDS Tech in June is a first step. Ricci expects the acquisition to end in three to six months. "The planes have to become more efficient, less polluting and less noisy," Ricci said. "Our role is to lead our customers to the technologies of the future."